Out of Molehills
by kuro.no.nukenin
Summary: Hyuuga Hiashi hears a rumor and overreacts. Oneshot.


Disclaimer: I own no part of the _Naruto _franchise.

Out of Molehills

Hyuuga Hiashi's eyes narrowed as he beheld the dark-haired young man in front of him. The Uchiha heir didn't look nearly as nervous as he should have; in fact, the boy's stony, stoic gaze more befitted a student who has been asked to clean the blackboards after class than a young man who has been summoned for a personal conference with the head of the Hyuuga clan. Well, it was of no consequence. Uchiha genius or not, he _would_ learn his place. Hiashi would see to that.

"Did you want something other than to stare at me all day? Because if not, I'll be leaving now."

A wave of fury quickly annihilated Hiashi's shock at being addressed so rudely, but he willed himself to be calm. He would not lower himself to the boy's level. Fixing Uchiha in the most intimidating of his arsenal of unnervingly blank gazes, he addressed the miscreant.

"I asked you here to determine the truth about a rumour I have heard concerning you and my daughter Hinata. I expect the absolute truth from you, and the consequences will be severe if I have any reason whatsoever to suspect you have given me less."

Now Uchiha's eyes narrowed. "Are you suggesting that I'd dishonor my family name with lies?" He huffed some sort of sound through his nose – indefinable but certainly scornful.

Hiashi exhaled slowly and silently, grasping tightly to his rapidly evaporating calm. Best keep to the business at hand and deal with this as quickly as possible, before he succumbed to the temptation to cuff this young upstart within an inch of his life. "Uchiha Sasuke. It has come to my attention that, four days ago, you were observed leaving a bathroom near the Academy with my daughter Hinata, after having been alone there with her for an indeterminate amount of time. Do you deny this?"

"No," the Uchiha answered flatly.

The floor dropped out from under Hiashi as a rush of helpless rage swept through him. Again, however, he managed to suppress most of it before speaking, though his tone was taught and steely as strung wire. "I see," he said. "In that case, you will marry Hinata at the end of this week; that is, two days from now."

_Now_ the boy looked frightened. "No, I will not!" he exclaimed.

Hiashi seethed. "_Yes, _you _will!" _he spat. "Did you honestly think that you could _take _my daughter, then go on and do as you please, with no consequences, leaving her bereft of both honour and future? If _that_ is what the Uchiha had come to, perhaps it is only for the best that they have been –"

"_You would dare to insult my clan again?" _demanded the Uchiha, who was suddenly somehow rather in Hiashi's face. Not literally, of course, but he was nearly touching the Hyuuga head's desk, something which anyone other than Hiashi himself should have been quite terrified to do. In fact, Hiashi rather suspected that the young reprobate might have jumped bodily _onto_ the desk to loom over him, if that had not meant putting himself within easy, instant reach of Hiashi's _Jyuuken_.

"You insult them yourself by your disgustingly indecent behaviour," declared Hiashi.

"What behaviour?" Uchiha scoffed.

Hiashi gritted his teeth. "You just admitted to me that you were alone with my daughter, in a _bathroom, _no less, without supervision or chaperone, and where you could be seen by no one, for no one knows how long!"

"Yes," repeated the belligerent young man. "I see no problem with that."

_Kami-sama_, the Uchiha clan really _had _fallen off the moral precipice before their demise. Hiashi was about to make a furious reply to that effect when the Uchiha spoke again.

"It's not as though we did anything wrong. She was only taking care of me."

Hiashi thought his head might blow off.

"_Taking care of you?" _he roared.

"Yes," said the boy, shrugging nonchalantly. "I didn't even ask her to; but she wanted to, and I didn't feel like stopping her."

_Kami-sama, he was going to kill this brat. And then Hinata. And then be sick. _But first, he had to know just how much at fault each party was.

"What. Exactly. Did. You. Do," he ground out.

Uchiha suddenly looked down at the carpet, and Hiashi's heart plummeted even further underground. If it fell any more, he supposed it would come out the other side of the earth. Though that was technically physically impossible in a dismaying number of ways… but no, he would _not_ allow his mental defense against trauma to shield him from this by distracting him. He had to know every single horrible detail, so he would know what to do.

The Uchiha was still staring guiltily at the floor. "If you must know…"

"I must," insisted Hiashi.

"Fine. I was… throwing up," the boy finally choked out, his cheeks flaming red for a rare instant. "I'd eaten something bad for lunch, I think. Hinata was helping me."

Hiashi's world suddenly froze. There was fuzzy white around the edges of his vision, and a curious high-pitched ringing plagued his ears. "H-helping you…" he stammered dazedly.

Uchiha sighed in annoyance and went even redder. "Look, she held my hair out of my face, rubbed my back, got me tissues and water afterwards, said it was going to be okay… that sort of thing. My… my mother… used to do that, when I would get sick, before..." his voice sounded delicate, about to break. But then he rallied. "…and no one ever said anything about me having to marry _her,_ so… I don't see why I should marry Hinata, just because she took care of me when I was sick – which _doesn't leave this room, _am I understood?"

"Of course not…" said Hiashi, faintly. Relief cascaded over him as he slumped back in his chair. The Uchiha heir was incredibly naïve, and some nosy gossips had taken advantage of that and his daughter's kindness – but that was all. He'd need to do some damage control and possibly close off a few _tenketsu_, just as a warning, but that was all…

"Anyway, I'm not marrying her."

"Of course not," Hiashi agreed, gradually coming back to himself. "If that's all you did…"

"What else would you think we'd be doing?" demanded the young man indignantly. "Plotting to blow up the Academy? Planning to deface the monument? That's the kind of thing that idiot blonde kid does – not me, and not her either, I don't think. I don't actually know her that well, though…"

"Well, that's all right, because you needn't marry her, now that I know the truth."

"Good!"

Despite his relief, and the horror that had filled him only moments before at the thought of a hasty union between Hyuuga heiress and Uchiha heir, Hiashi couldn't help but find this a bit insulting. He frowned. "Good?"

The Uchiha looked uncharacteristically uncomfortable. "It's not that I think she would make a bad wife," he tried to explain. "It's just that… As I said, I don't really know her well. And, more importantly, I have some business to take care of before I get married. It will be a while, because I still need much more training before I can do it."

Hiashi nodded. "Of course, you want to become a full-fledged shinobi, first," he said, still too relieved to care much about the fact that they were suddenly talking as though they were good friends carefully considering the possibility of the Uchiha one day wedding Hinata.

"That, too," said the boy darkly. "And even if I could finish that tomorrow, you'd still have to wait at least three years."

"Three years?" asked Hiashi curiously.

"Yes," said the boy, his cold, stoic affect beginning to take him over again. "Three years. I'm sure the Hyuuga have their traditions? Well, the Uchiha ha…" he caught himself about to say _have_. "… _had _ours. And I'm pretty sure that, by my clan tradition, I'm not allowed to get married until I'm twelve. At least."

… Well, there _was_ that…


End file.
